Richard A. Matthew (PhD Princeton) is Director of the Center for Unconventional Security Affairs (www.cusa.uci.edu) and Associate Professor of International and Environmental Politics in the Schools of Social Ecology and Social Science at the University of California at Irvine. He is also the Senior Fellow for Security at the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD); a member of the World Conservation Union's Commission on Environmental, Economic and Social Policy; and a member of the Homeland Security Advisory Council (Region 1).
His research focuses on four themes: (1) the structure and dynamics of transnational threat systems such as global terrorism; (2) the relationship between demographic change and new security challenges in democracies; (3) the relationships among microfinance, security and sustainable development; and (4) the environmental dimensions of conflict, human security and peacebuilding in war-torn societies of the developing world, especially in South Asia and East Africa. He has collaborated with IISD to study environmental change in relation to the causes of conflict, conflict resolution and post-conflict reconstruction in Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sudan. All of this research explores ways in which conservation and sustainable development can be designed and implemented to reduce violence and insecurity in different settings.
Recent books and co-edited volumes include Contested Grounds: Security and Conflict in the New Environmental Politics (SUNY Press: 1999); Dichotomy of Power: Nation versus State in World Politics (Lexington: 2002); Conserving the Peace: Resources, Livelihoods, and Security (IISD: 2002); Reframing the Agenda: The Impact of NGO and Middle Power Cooperation in International Security Policy (Praeger: 2003); and Landmines and Human Security: International Relations and War's Hidden Legacy (SUNY Press: 2004).
Web Links of Research Sites
Selected Publications (2005-2009)
“The International Campaign to Ban Landmines,” Nancy Matuszak (ed.) Encyclopedia of International Security (Washington: CQ Press, forthcoming 2010).
“Demography and Climate Change,” Jack Goldstone, Eric Kaufmann and Monica Duffy (eds.), Political Demography: Interests, Conflict and Institutions (New York: Palgrave, forthcoming 2010).
Co-author with Anne Hammill, “Peacebuilding and Climate Change Adaptation,” St. Anthony’s International Review, forthcoming 2010.
Co-author with Anne Hammill, “Climate Change and Sustainable Development,” International Affairs, forthcoming 2009.
Co-author with Ajay Garde, Jean-Daniel Saphores and Kristin Day, "Sustainable Neighborhood Development: Insights from Southern California, " Environment and Planning B, forthcoming 2009.
Co-author with Paul Wapner, “The Humanity of Global Environmental Ethics,” Journal of Environment and Development, 18, June 2009: 203-222.
[Articled translated into Vietnamese by the Journal Donation Project at The New School, 2009.]
“Environment, Conflict and Sustainable Development,” Necla Tschirgi and Francesco Mancini (eds.), Security and Development: Critical Connections (New York: United Nations Press, forthcoming 2009).
“Reading, Writing and Readiness,” Torin Monahan and Rodolfo Torres (eds.), Schools Under Surveillance: Cultures of Control in Public Education (Piscataway, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2009).
Co-editor with Jon Barnett, Bryan McDonald and Karen O’Brien, Global Environmental Change and Human Security (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2009).
Co-author with Anne Hammill and Elissa McCarter, “Microfinance and Climate Change Adaptation,” Bulletin of International Development Studies, 39:4, 2008: 113-122.
[Article highlighted at: http://www.eldis.org/go/display&id=40959&type=Document&emnotif160109
Article reprinted in Global Approach to Microfinance (India: The Institute of Chartered Financial Analysts of India University Press, 2009)]
“Environmental Security,” Norman Vig and Michael Kraft (eds). Environmental Policy: New Directions for the Twenty-First Century, 7th edition (Washington: CQ Press, 2009), pp. 327-348.
Co-author with Heather Goldsworthy and Bryan McDonald. “Rethinking Environmental Ethics,” in Antonio Franchescet (ed). The Ethics of Global Governance. (Lynne Reinner Press, 2009), pp. 141-157.
Co-author with Bryan McDonald, “Environmental Security Concepts and Debates in North America,” Hans Guenter Brauch et al. (eds.) Facing Global Environmental Change: Environmental, Human, Energy, Food and Water Security Concepts. (Berlin: Springer, 2009), pp. 791-802.
Co-author with Renard Sexton, Howard Mann and Maliza van Eeden, UNEP Mission Report: Peacebuilding and Environmental Management Issues Relating to Natural Resources in Sierra Leone (Geneva and Nairobi: UNEP, 2009)
Co-author with Anne Hammill, Alec Crawford, Robert Craig and Robert Malpas, Conflict-Sensitive Conservation: Practitioners’ Manual (IISD: Geneva and Winnipeg, 2009).
Co-author with David Jensen and Oli Brown. From Conflict to Peacebuilding: The Role of Natural Resources. Geneva: UNEP, 2009).
“Climate Change: A Threat Assessment,” Carolyn Pumphrey (ed.), Global Climate Change: National Security Implications. Strategic Studies Institute/Triangle Institute for Security Studies, 2008, pp. 55-68.
“ Resource Scarcity: Responding to the Security Challenge,” Coping with Crisis, Working Paper Series, International Peace Institute, 2008.
Co-author with Roxane Cohen Silver. “Terrorism,” V. N. Parrillo (ed.), Encyclopedia of Social Problems. (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2008).
Co-author with Bryan McDonald and George Shambaugh, “Post-9/11 America: Conventional Wisdom versus Popular Pragmatism,” Democracy and Society 5:2, Spring 2008: 1, 20-25.
Co-author with Bishnu Upreti, “Environmental Stress and Demographic Change in Nepal: Underlying Conditions Contributing to a Decade of Insurgency,” Environmental Change and Security Project Report 11, 2007: 29-39.
[The issue this article appeared in won the 2007 Global Media Award for Excellence in Population Reporting. http://www.wilsoncenter.org/index.cfm?topic_id=1413&fuseaction=topics.event_summary&event_id=358657 ]
Co-author, “Resource Rights and Conflict in South Asia,” Peace Review 19: 1, Spring 2007.
Co-author with Jon Barnett and Karen O’Brien. “Global Environmental Change and Human Security,” Hans Guenther Brauch et al. (eds.) Globalization and Environmental Challenges: Reconceptualizing Security in the 21st Century. (Berlin: Springer, 2007),pp. 355-362
“Climate Change and Human Security,” Joseph DiMento and Pamela Doughman (eds.), Climate Change: What It Means for You, Your Children, and Your Grandchildren (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2007), pp. 161-180.
“Are We Prepared?” Disaster Preparedness, May 2007, pp. 40-42.
“The Security Implications of Global Climate Change,” Disaster Preparedness, June 2007, pp. 20-25.
“Iraq: The Moth in the Candle Syndrome,” Disaster Preparedness, July 2007, pp. 44-50.
“The Dimensions of Preparedness,” Disaster Preparedness, August 2007, pp. 11-15.
“Terrorism Overblown,” Disaster Preparedness, September 2007.
Co-author with Anne Hammill, “Surviving in a Changing World: Environment, Security and Microfinance,” The Green Optimist, Summer 2006.
Co-author with Shaheen Rafi Khan and Shahbaz Bokhari, “Livelihoods, Security and Conflict: Dir Kohistan, Pakistan,” Patricia Moore (ed.), Sustainable Livelihoods, Environmental Security and Conflict Mitigation (Gland: IUCN, 2006), pp. 129-159.
“Bioterrorism and National Security: Peripheral Threats, Core Vulnerabilities,” Elizabeth Hartmann and Banu Sumerian (eds.), Making Threats: Biofears and Environmental Anxieties (New York: Rowman and Littlefield, 2006), pp. 237-246.
Co-author with Bryan McDonald, “Cities under Siege: Urban Planning and the Threat of Infectious Disease,” Journal of the American Planning Association 72, 1, 2006: 109-126.
Co-author with George Shambaugh, “The Limits of Terrorism: A Network Perspective,” International Studies Review 7, 2005: 617-627.
Co-author with George Shambaugh, “The Pendulum Effect: Explaining Shifts in the Democratic Response to Terrorism,” Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policies 5, 1, 2005: 223-233.
“Man, the State and Nature: Rethinking Environmental Security,” Peter Dauvergne (ed.), Handbook of Global Environmental Politics (Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar, 2005), pp. 127-148.
“Sustainable Livelihoods, Environmental Security and Conflict Mitigation: Four Cases in South Asia,” Gonzalo Oviedo and Pascal van Griethuysen (eds.), Poverty, Equity and Rights in Conservation (Gland: IUCN, 2005), pp. 67-70.
Co-author with Karen O’Brien, Jon Barnett, Indra De Soysa, Lyla Metha, Joni Seager, Maureen Woodrow and Hans Georg Bohle, “Hurricane Katrina Reveals Challenges to Human Security,” Aviso 14, October 2005.
Co-author with Shaheen Rafi Khan and Kundan Kumar, “Livelihoods, Environmetn and Conflict in Forested Areas in Dir-Kohistan, Pakistan and Koraput, India,” Forests and Conflicts, Special Issue of European Tropical Forest Research Network News, No. 43-44, Winter 2004-2005, pp. 86-88.